Christmas Eve, and to my great joy, a gift to me from me, ends of combed top and roving, angora goat, arrived today, on a Sunday, several days ahead of schedule. Cheerful postie wearing a Santa hat, too.
So a lot of squeeing and playing and excited tweeting ensued. It's two small bags of ends, plenty for me, and each bag totally different colorways. Unbelievable softness, and there's sparkle, and dark, and variegated carded colors, just a wonderful deal. From Goats Magosh, and I like these people now! See the handwritten note on the invoice.
Then, another gift arrived early, including some lovely glass beads, a crystal string now on the tree, where it catches rainbows every morning, and will stay up after seasonal items come down.
and some now in the current weaving in progress. In fact, there are a few more inches done since I did this pic yesterday.
This is yarn I spun and dyed, and plied, even, and you've seen it at various stages. The loom is cardboard, and I warped up the back, too so I can continue working over the top and round, making a longer piece than you see here. Very crafty stuff, this.
All very much well on the art side of life right now. And many more plans in mind, as always.
Merry Holidays to us all! and if Sunday is just a nice December Sunday, enjoy that.
The spinning adventure went into high gear with the arrival of the bag of roving ends, and I recommend it as a terrific low cost way of testing all kinds of roving to see what you like. I'm finding that some of them are resistant and hard to spin, while others are ready to spin themselves, and look much more like the yarn in the pictures.
So maybe it's not always the spinner. Maybe it's sometimes the preparation of the fiber. Anyway, what's happening now is that I'm working on a small weaving, and when I want to change color, I paw through the bag of roving and spin up what I need. This is so much more my style than planning and setting up, and is a lot of fun. It really is like having a palette of color to go to. And that includes mixing fibers to change the color.
This weaving was interrupted by a friend showing up with an out of town friend in tow, wanting to show her the artworks around here. I heard the friend saying, shouldn't we have called ahead? and being assured that we have an arrangement. Which is true. If it were not a good time, I'd say so, no hard feelings. But as it was it was great to show this new person around, and have her ask interesting questions about what she saw. Actually I think she liked the kitchen backsplash as much as anything...
So, this weaving now has more added in to it, a dark blue, and some of my plied blue and white. I think I'll weave over the top of the loom and down the back, to length it. It's shaping up like a landscape. There will be more beads added, probably. Meanwhile, it's really engrossing and taking over from a lot of other things.
I keep on browsing online about spindles and the latest interest, a kick spindle. Wondering if it would help my spinning. But then I remember that drafting is drafting no matter how the spindle is held, and no number of handy toys will improve that. But I'm still wondering about it.
And if you google on it, you may find yourself in an automotive rabbit hole. Evidently it's also the name of some part of a car! which explains my total confusion when I tried to see kick spindles and was looking at bits of machinery which didn't seem likely to lend themselves. Also googling on spinning tends to take you to local gyms. This reminds me of a long ago convo with a guy, to whom a Singer was a kind of car, and to me a kind of sewing machine.
And, since the lovely birthday bouquet has finally wilted, after sticking around for many days, I was able to save out some petals for future dyeing, here the red carnations and the stripey tulips.
These are now in the freezer ready for the next dyeing caper.
Here's the doorway piece, central motif stitched and beaded and cut out of surrounding fabric, then stitched down to protect the raw edge.
It's just set on top of the weaving for now, but will be secured there, and much more beading will happen around it, probably emphasizing the doorway motif. All this happens before I remove it from the loom. I'm thinking this might become the first of a series.
I'm back with my stitching, the doorway motif which was the polaroid transfer print, and with trapunto going on. Here you can see some couching and beading in progress, and the small purple weaving in the background might possibly go with this stitching.
Not sure yet, but I'll know more when I remove the stitching from the hoop and cut around it. The ragged edges of the transfer image won't be part of the finished work. I might be able to mount the stitched piece onto the weaving, then frame them together that way. The weaving will fit into an 8 x 8 box frame. Just a thought at this point.
I decided it didn't fit with the bigger work I originally had it in mind for, not right in spirit, so it will be a freestanding small work, possibly one of a series. The bigger work has suggested doorways, but the overall feeling of it is different.
You'll see my latest toy there, too, my LED portable worklight. It folds right down to the size of a fat wallet, easy to carry about and work in places where the light isn't quite good enough for stitching. It has three light levels, and I use it at the brightest setting. I'm an LED fan now!
And the dear little loom is another favorite tool, made in the US, yay, all metal, beautifully finished. Designed largely for potholders, but I use it for all kinds of artworks.
Today's the Annual Grow Your Blog day, organized and created by Vicki at Two Bags Full, much applause to her, and see the button on the right indicating this.
Welcome to new readers, and welcome back to current readers and followers. My screen name is Boud, by which I'm often referred to, but my real life name is Liz. This is my art blog (I also have a general purpose blog, Field and Fen here )
Art the Beautiful Metaphor, a joke relating to soccer, the beautiful game, is the blog where I show my current and past art in a range of media, monotypes
drawings
tapestry weaving
ink and wash watercolors
Portrait of the Artist
embroidery
knitting
sewing
artist's books
handmade paper
here with reverse drawing on glass
stick weaving
beadweaving
my exhibits
what's up in the studio
where I also review other people's exhibits
Homefront, a wonderful local organization helping with homeless emergencies and with people's need to restart their lives and whose artists show great work
Ellarslie, Museum of the City of Trenton
Mercer County College
and generally give an artist's eye view of the world and gladly welcome input from readers and observers, artists or not.
Sometimes I'm accompanied by my character dolls, the Dollivers, seen above modeling a handknit scarf I designed and made for a friend, five knitted creations with a large wardrobe each, to exhibits and to hindrance in the studio...they mainly live at Field and Fen, though, and if you like them, you can wander over there to see more of their exploits.
There will be a small giveaway to a random commenter on this blogpost, and to see it, scroll back a little way for a picture and description. No need to have a blog in order to enter, no need to do more than comment in here and you're in. I'll do the drawing on February 15 and announce the winner in here and get an address from him or her to ship the item to.
Meanwhile, browse enjoy, ask, comment, and thank you for being here.
